Email marketing has changed. Some people barely open their emails at all, while others are “inbox zero”-happy and hit the delete button on any email that they deem unworthy.
How to get your email read instead being sent straight to the trash before it even gets open? You are a professional speaker (or on your way to become one), and that demands a level of consistent professionalism. Don’t save your best “stage presence” just for the stage.
To come off as a professional, continually communicate in a mature and natural way with your audience.
Here are tips to help get your emails opened:
- Do you have a professional email address? Yahoo, MSN, even Gmail is not the best email domain to use for a growing business. When you get a website domain name (like susiespeaker.com), it comes with the ability to use the same domain name for emails (such as Susie@susiespeaker.com and support@susiespeaker.com). Emails at your own domain look more professional and increase email opening rates. Gmail is a good email provider and integrates with many services. For $5/month they can host your domain emails (see http://apps.google.com). You don’t have to give up Gmail functionality to have a custom domain name in your email address. This helps build your brand, trust and integrity.
- Never send attachments unless asked. An inquiry is not an unwanted solicitation. Your prospect will appreciate it if you respect them enough to ask first, send later. Don’t attach your onesheet, bio, videos, cv, etc. to your email. Many people are rightfully cautious about attachments, so you may find your email in their trash bin. Your initial email should always be text-only and once you start to establish some rapport, you can ask whether they are interested in seeing your onesheet for review.
- Subject line – the part of your email that everyone sees before they open the email. I often delete messages just because the subject line sounds spammy or like a sales call. Make your subject line relevant, friendly and without any “offers” and without mentioning money in any way, so it doesn’t sound salesy. For example, don’t mention contests, or giveaways, cash, money, discount, sale, free, etc. — these can get easily blocked by the recipient’s spam filter. Really look at the recipient’s website, mention something you found there — a blog post article, buzzwords they use on their website, or something you both have in common. In other words, have a real conversation opening, not something generic. “Your Puppy Treats blog post” is a good subject, so long as it also pertains to the contents of the email.
Email is still a valuable means of contacting people, so by following the recommendations above, you might find more of your emails being delivered, opened and even get responses.
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